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WTF?! Synology lately launched a brand new compatibility coverage governing the drives that prospects can set up in a few of its network-attached storage home equipment. Choose NAS merchandise now solely assist particular Synology-branded drives, and the corporate seems desirous to seize vital revenue margins on what are, in lots of instances, comparatively low-spec parts.
Synology lately began promoting a brand new line of branded NVMe SSDs designed to “supercharge” its newest DiskStation Supervisor NAS fashions. The SNV5420 collection is available in three capacities, with the 1.6TB mannequin presently listed at a hefty $535. Regardless of the worth, the SSD’s specs are considerably outdated, although Synology claims the drives are optimized for data-intensive environments.
The SNV5420 presents sequential learn speeds of as much as 3,000 MB/s and “sustained” sequential write speeds of as much as 1,000 MB/s. These are commonplace PCIe 3.0 speeds – unimpressive in a market that’s quickly shifting towards PCIe 5.0. Much more regarding is the 1.6TB mannequin’s endurance ranking: simply 2,900 TBW and three million hours MTBF, which falls quick in comparison with many cheaper, higher-performance SSDs available on the market.
Synology states that the SNV5420 collection has undergone intensive validation to be used in DSM NAS home equipment. The drives’ firmware and parts have been tightly managed, stress-tested, and vetted to fulfill the “excessive” high quality and reliability requirements set by the corporate.
Earlier this yr, Synology started requiring prospects to make use of its branded HDDs and SSDs in choose NAS fashions, claiming the change would ship improved efficiency, reliability, and compatibility. Nevertheless, the newly launched SNV5420 SSD collection reinforces criticism that the corporate is making an attempt to overcharge customers by promoting older {hardware} with more and more outdated specs.
Fortuitously, prospects nonetheless have options. Most different NAS producers don’t impose such restrictions on the varieties of drives customers can set up. Even Synology’s personal newest DSM items will be configured to just accept “non-compatible” drives, as detailed by German tech website ComputerBase.
Drive compatibility in Synology NAS programs is enforced through a regionally saved database. Customers can bypass this restriction by working an open-source script that permits them to whitelist unsupported drives. The script additionally presents further options resembling disabling automated database updates and suppressing compatibility warnings for older WD drives.
Whereas Synology insists that prospects ought to now depend on its proprietary ecosystem of licensed storage media, the corporate doesn’t manufacture these drives itself. As an alternative, it rebrands merchandise sourced from established third-party distributors like Toshiba and Seagate.